So i began my day with an air of optimism, thinking I'd spend some time on the MINI changing the oil, adding my new alta panel filter, and ending with a wash. Needless to say i expected some problems but I had one headache of a time. Here goes...

It started off when I drove up on my ramps to get under and drain the oil. I had everything ready except for one crucial item which made everything a real pain, the 36mm socket to take out the oil filter housing, which i thought I had already, big mistake. After driving around to three different auto parts store i found one that looked decently small and made a beeline back home.

Long story short, I can tell why its important to have the shallow 36mm socket, bc that filter housing was one PITA to get off in that small of a hole in the engine bay with a larger socket. Not to mention the amount of power it took to get the bolt out of the oil pan, that was no easy feat either. In the end though, I got my 4.7 quarts of MOBIL1 in there and everything back on. Now the next problem was resetting the oil change counter, which I still cannot seem to figure out. Everything I find says to punch the trip odo then turn the key to Position 1, then I should see the word RESET, all I see is a bunch of random lines and the word TEST. I've decided to give up on that for now.

Next task was to put in the ALTA panel filter, sounding easy enough as I've installed CAI's on 4 or 5 other VW's. For some reason what seemed to be easiest part was the most difficult, getting that freaking silver clamp off the hose to get the hose off of the airbox, i couldnt do it! I just unscrewed the torx screws and jimmied the box top off just enough to replace the filter. Another PITA.

While I was around working on the car, I decided to check for two commonly discussed MINI problems as well, Mushrooming and rust in the door sil. Thankfully I didnt find any rust under that weatherstrip (although it was quite damp :/) It turns out my strut towers are slightly mushroomed. Another bummer. Looks like I'll be in the market for an M7 stb soon.

When all was supposedly said and done, I added a thing of techron (I was hoping to get record MPG with replacing the filter and oil so I added some techron to give me an edge over the pump, anything helps right?) and drove down to the local chevron to fill up, where I found my last and final little problem, bugs. yes bugs. I for some reason have hundreds of tiny (about the tip of a ballpoint pen) size green bugs crawling all over the outside of my car. I washed them all off but who knows if they'll return.

Anyways, thanks for reading my rant, hopefully my next little home tuneup will prove to be a bit easier and much, much more enjoyable. Any input is welcome, take care.